Freefall
by Tarafina
Summary: Apparently, martyrdom wasn’t for him; a near-death experience proves it to her. :Chloe/Duke:


**Title**: Freefall  
**Category**: Smallville/GI: Joe  
**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Chloe/Duke  
**Rating**: PG13  
**Word Count**: 1,647  
**Summary**: Apparently, martyrdom wasn't for him; a near-death experience proves it to her.

**_Freefall_**

Chloe Sullivan dangled from the top of a building with nothing but a rope wrapped around her ankle. Her arms flailed, her hair hung, pointing directly at the all-too-far-away ground. Her chest hurt with each hurried breath she suck in out of fear. People were gathering, pointing and staring at the poor unfortunate who had the bad luck to be stuck in her position. Bad luck was a crap term for it considering she might've exposed somebody who wasn't interested in her form of justice or truth. Not the first time this had happened, although the dangling off a building was new. Usually, they tried hitmen. Apparently, they were only now cluing in to the fact that she had a pretty good handle on hired goons.

There were a number of ways she could handle this; if only her brain would slow down long enough for her to think straight. She could try pulling herself up, maybe climb up the rope to get to safety, but in order for that to happen she would've had to spend a lot more time in the past working on her upper body strength. _Note to self_, she thought, _work on that_. Another option was to scream her head off until somebody snapped out of their awe to help her. Again, she was a little high up for them to likely hear her and shouldn't they already be _doing _that? Then there was always the League, at least two of whom could be there to save her in a quick flash. Unfortunately, one of them didn't have super hearing, and the other was currently avoiding her. Although, admittedly, she knew for a fact that come what may, Clark would answer her call no matter what. However, it wasn't his name she found herself screaming in that moment of terror. She would later blame it on the fact that she must have seen the not-so-subtle truck he and his team often drove in, unwilling to admit that he was quite possibly her very last thought when faced with death. She never denied she was stubborn.

However, if she had admitted it to him or herself, she'd know that there was no way she could've picked his truck out from as high up as she was. Especially not when tears of worry had been clouding her eyes for the last five minutes. One didn't wake up out of a fog of unconsciousness and start looking for the truck of the guy she'd been, for lack of a better term, sleeping with these last few months. There'd been rules; no strings attached. All right, there'd been one rule. And no other seemed all that important in comparison. However, somewhere along the line, that rule might've been completely ignored. Especially when she found that he was a whole lot more than a nice body and a good stress reliever.

A hero; could she fall for anything less?

The blood was rushing to her head, she might have said. Anything so not to admit that she was madly in love with him. She would be well-prepared with a list of plausible reasons she was shouting his name at the top of her lungs while hanging precariously from a building top, waiting to meet her demise. And he wouldn't believe one of them.

"Conrad!" she screamed, struggling with herself to find a way out of this. She couldn't look up because all it did was remind her of where she was, she couldn't look down because that reminded her how far the ground was. She covered her eyes with her hands, felt the tears wet them and wondered how long it was going to take before she stopped being scared of death when it seemed so hell bent on getting her.

The rope wriggled and she caught her breath, certain that this was it; it couldn't hold her weight any longer.

And then…

"I got you."

Hanging upright, wearing the right kind of gear for a climbing expedition, Conrad S. Hauser, codename Duke, swung just inches from her. He reached out, caught her around her shoulders and drew her up until he could hold her. She wrapped her loose leg around his waist while he took out a knife and cut the rope holding her. Vaguely, she heard cheering, clapping, job well done. But all she could focus on was her rabid heartbeat pounding in her ears as she held on for dear life, clutching at him so tightly he was bound to be choking. He didn't say anything, didn't motion for her to stop, instead he called up for them to start pulling him to safety. He stroked her back, murmured nonsense words in her ears until she relaxed a little.

When finally they were on the roof, her feet on solid ground, she managed to draw her head back long enough to be absolutely sure. He was staring at her, as if waiting for her to pass out or say something. Instead she shook her head, her lips trembling. He stroked her hair, dragged her back in until he was cradling her against his chest and she held on tight, buried her face in his chest and tried to breathe.

It was a few hours before she finally felt like she was getting back to normal. She sat on the edge of his bed, a glass of room temperature water in hand. She'd already explained what had happened and why she was where she was a few hundred times. General Hawk had promised her that he would look into it himself and while she didn't know him, having only just met him that afternoon, she saw honesty in his eyes and found herself believing in his words. Duke's team left shortly after, leaving her alone with him. He hadn't said anything since he saved her, just kept close by as she was interrogated by the local police and then questioned by General Hawk.

She was waiting for him to yell at her, like so many heroes before him he had to be certain he knew better. But when it didn't come, it left her on edge. Finally, he sat down next to her, his shoulders slumping and his head bowed. "Our arrangement has to end," he finally said.

She felt the pain of that statement straight in her chest, only hoping it didn't show as obviously on her face. He might as well have left her on the building to die, she thought. Once again, Chloe Sullivan doesn't get the hero.

Jaw clenching, he shook his head. "Today… Seeing you out there…" His cheek ticked with emotion. "I wasn't sure I'd get there in time."

She turned her eyes upward, trying to keep her tears at bay. She was so unbelievably sick and tired of the martyr act. She was absolutely done with men. None of them had the guts to simply tell her they couldn't love her. Instead, they went the old route of saying she was too good for them or they couldn't risk losing her so they had to stop before they got too attached. She'd heard it enough times she could almost recite it word for word.

His roughened hand slid around her neck, thumb stroking, and tilted her head until she was looking at him. He stared at her a full minute, but it felt like hours. She'd miss how green his eyes were. "I love you."

Her heart skipped, halted, stuttered back into rhythm. Brows furrowing, she managed, "But?"

He smiled, as if amused that she could actually ask that. "But nothing."

She shook her head. "I don't… I don't get it."

He licked his lips. "I figured it was self-explanatory."

"Yeah, but…" She looked around, expecting someone to jump out and tell her she'd entered the Twilight Zone. "But today, and… and the near-death thing… That usually, I dunno, scares them off… This is where you tell me I'm wonderful and beautiful, and yadda yadda, but you can't handle losing me, so you're giving me up."

He grinned slowly. "I _can't_ handle losing you," he agreed. "Which is why I _won't _give you up."

She chewed her lip in disbelief.

With a low chuckle, he leaned in, pressing his forehead to hers. "I'm a Joe, Chloe… When everyone else fails, I don't." He kissed the tip of her nose affectionately. "I won't fail you. Ever."

Her heart mended, sped up, ran headfirst into the unknown and hoped for the best. "Big words for someone who just saved me from my head-first plunge off an incredibly tall building…" she murmured.

"I'll keep climbing gear on me regularly."

She laughed, eyes falling closed. She couldn't quite wrap her mind around this; it was too good. In a quiet whisper of a breath, she admitted, "I'm not used to things working out. I'm waiting for the other shoe to fall."

Wrapping his arms around her, he gathered her into his lap. "This _will _work out… The other shoe falls, I catch it. All right?"

She nodded, sniffling as she buried her face in his neck.

He held her for a few long minutes before breaking the ice with, "So… Were you yelling my name out there?"

She laughed, shaking her head.

He smirked. "I could've sworn you were screaming for me to come help you."

"You should get your hearing checked."

"Mandatory, had it checked last month." He looked down at her with those intense green eyes of his. "All things considered, I think you might just love me back."

She scrunched up her face teasingly. "No, I distinctly remember yelling Ripcord…"

He snorted, shaking his head. "You wanna start this?"

Smugly, she replied. "I wanna _win _this."

He grinned.

And she fell a little harder for her own personal GI Joe. After all, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.


End file.
